Pages

11.29.2011

Hi friends! I hope your week is off to a great start! Today was definitely a fun and uber busy day - and it's only Tuesday! ;) I volunteered at my son's school working in the week long holiday store that we set up for the kids to come in and shop for their mommies and daddies and families :) It's so cute seeing their faces, some of them as young as 3.5, saying "mommy really wants this soccer ball! Really, she does! I just know it!" LOL!

It's the bi-weekly challenge for Riley and Company and this week's challenge is a fun one - a side step card! Silly me, I read "easel card" when I saw the post awhile back and created the little rounded easel card style - ooops! Hopefully Riley and Percy snow dancing will be just as cute in this style as they would have side steppin' *smile!*

I used another mat stack from MME to keep with the festive, fun theme of the Riley image, colored with prismas and some glitter for snow - pretty CAS overall, but what fun! I really enjoyed putting this simple but creative card together and could easily see making this style as an invitation, etc.

Want to see some more DT inspiration and link up your side step card? Check out the Riley blog here, we'd love to see what you make! If you use a gallery or post to SCS, use the keyword Riley2411 so we know where to find you :)

11.28.2011

Hiya! I hope your long weekend was a marvelous one and your Thanksgiving was filled with bountiful blessings :) Ours was so nice, spending it with extended family members and eating way too much! My wonderful-in-every way hubby and I shared with the children a little surprise we've been keeping secret from them. Our 3 daughters all have December birthdays and we planned their dream come true and something they wished upon .... and our daughter hasn't been well for months and it's been hard for her to give up some of her "normal" life, changing her diet drastically and going thru appts and tests and PTL everything is treatable, but at 16, it's not a 'normal' life when even the small things like sitting thru Breaking Dawn leaves her in tears because the lights + sounds are piercingly painful. We shared with them on Thanksgiving Eve that we are off to find snow during the holiday break! We rented a cabin in the mountains of Tennessee and I absolutely CAN'T WAIT!! I think I will remember their expressions forever - from the blink, blink .... stare .... look at a sibling .... look back .... blink, blink and then the utter squeals and teary eyes {from me most of all!} Good times await! We went to the outlet malls yesterday and stocked up on our "winter outer wear" and snow boots and I just pray, pray, pray that this will be a year that the snow falls and they can experience the beauty of a white Christmas! :)

I'm sooo excited I forgot to share a few things! First, the random chosen winner of my Riley and Co Blog Hop post has been contacted and announced here on the blog so congratulations again to Margaret of Black ShadowCreations - woohoo! Enjoy and happy Riley stampin'!

This month, the Calendar Girls are celebrating Christmas Cards! I knew right away what I would be making when I saw the monthly theme - a card for the kids and the upcoming trip. Using my sweet Elzybells stamp (how I miss this company so very much!!), I kept it pretty simple over all with the layout.

I have held on to this last sheet of dsp from October Afternoon for forever ... but it was time to put it to good use since it was exactly what I was looking for to match the image with the rows of holiday houses adorned with wreaths and snowman and falling snow, I'm apparently out of clear ice stickles but I forgot to remind myself of that *snort!* so I went with MS super fine glitter :)

And, of course, I had to keep the theme going and do my card on the inside, too, but added a computer generated sentiment to match the news!

The other Calendar Girls have created Christmas cards, too, so be sure to see what they made. Thanks for letting me share this most blessed news and I'm beyond excited to be mostly done with the planning stage! My dh and I jokingly say this will either be the trip that memories are made of for them and their snow-filled wishes or a Chevy Chase remake, LOL!

11.24.2011

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope your day has been a bountiful, blessed one! I am grateful for so, so many things - including the blessings of knowing all of you! And I'm sure you are ready to hop! Today begins the Brand NewRiley and Company Winter Stamp release and the introduction of a brand new Riley friend, Percy! I hope you've enjoyed the DT sneaks this week and are ready to sit back with your coffee, tea and full bellies to hop along!

And for the really exciting news! In true holiday spirit, a FREElimited edition MINI Riley stamp with every order in the first 24 hours! Wow!

There's more! As an added gift for all of you, we are going to give you Free shipping Thursday, November 24th until Sunday night, November 27th on your entire purchase!!!!! Wow again! :) Make sure to complete the entire hop - one lucky winner will blog candy at each DT blog stop :)

11.22.2011

Ohhhh how I adored that movie growing up! I remember huddling around the tv in my jammies sooo excited to see it again each holiday when we lived in the U.S.! And how sweet is this Riley as The Grinch!! LOVE!!! NGL, I think this one is my fave of the new stamps being released at Riley and Co in ....... 2 more days!! SOOO exciting!!

11.21.2011

Woohoo, onward to sneak peak #3! What a fun-filled Riley-icious couple of days this has been introducing Riley and his new friend, Percy! Just in case you are just joining the DT blogs, on Thanksgiving Day - the 24th - Riley and company will release the new Riley and Sophie Winter Wonderland stamps and a brand new stampie friend, Percy the Penguin!

For today's post, I have a super simple holiday gift card holder - perfect for the number of "little" gift cards we'll all be handing out this holiday :) I have had this template saved in my files since last year and it's perfect again! I paired Hot Cocoa Riley with some holiday striped paper, paired it with holiday buttons and twine, and super simple - under 15 minutes of crafting!

A couple more days and we are at the home stretch of the Thanksgiving Hop!You won't want to miss it!

11.20.2011

Evening!! Just a quickie post tonight as dh and I are in the midst of planning a VERY special holiday gift for our children! But I could not wait to show you another sneak peek of the new soon-to-be released Riley and Co Winter stamps - Riley and Percy fishing! I'm SOOO Lovin' this new little sweetie, a perfect bff for Riley who's adventurous soul often matches my own *wink!*

Here's Riley in his Winter Wonderland ice fishing - what a wild sport that would be! I paired it with some MME winter papers in hues of brown and blue - I purposely cut the image small enough to fit around a cut out to make a "frame" - paired with some super fine glitter and shimmery snowflake. FUN!!

Keep on stopping by the DT blogs located here if you can to catch a glimpse of all the new Riley and Sophie's being released at the Thanksgiving Day Blog Hop! The new stamps will be available that night after the hop on Thursday, November 24th! We know this will be a really busy day for most of you, but the fun thing is there will be a blog candy stamp win on each blog for one lucky hopper! Woohoo!

Happy SONday to all! What an exciting start to the week - a brand new Riley and Company sneak peaks week and stamp release! And let me just say, in addition to being the cutest lil Rileys, Riley is introducing a brand new friend - Percy!

Today starts the new sneaks and you'll be seeing a lot of adorable-ness on the DT blogs, and a Thanksgiving Blog Hop on Thursday, 24 November 2011 @ 10 PM ... woohoo!

For my card today, I used Wreath Riley and he'll be one of the new stamps released - 17 in all, along with some word sentiments. SO exciting! I paired it with some MME holiday paper and kept it in a circular frame to accentuate the round wreath. I used some lighter canary greens to go with the red to pull from the paper's colors. The inside sentiment is from the new winter words collection ... you'll be seeing a lot of wonderful holiday sentiments this week! :)

Wreath Riley and all the stamps will be available on the 24th but you can starts seeing some new sneaks by checking out the DT blogs! Enjoy!

11.18.2011

Oh my goodness, where is the "hold" button on life!!? Wow, it's been a whirlwind here and no chance of slowing down anytime soon! I've been assisting at my son's school (love!!), activities, rehearsals, church, bible study - my plate runneth over :) It keeps my mind and body very busy, lol ........ but I did want to stop in since I have a CAS card to share from a swap and some blog candy winnin' to announce!

Barb, our wonderful SCS supah swap hostess of the year, was the hostess for this "mystery round" image swap - which means the hostess of the month picks a stamp and sends the stamped images to the swappers to create a card around it! FUN! FUN! This month, Barb chose her favorite Whipper Snapper company and sent us this adorable Prescott! I know, I went pink :) It just screamed pink and red when I first saw it and made a card around the idea I had, although now even with the embossed snowflake background and the red holiday ribbon, it looks a little like Valentines! Hee hee!

There is also a sentiment on the inside, but I'll let the swappers be surprised by that one if they should receive this one ;)

And, thank you for your patience in waiting for the candy winner ....... drumroll .......... Lucky winner #15 .... who really is Lucky! And his mommy, Kathy, too :) Kathy and Lucky said...

Oh this is just adorable. Love this image and your card! Your friend is going to love it. Sounds like a great weekend, I got my son's room ready, he comes home next week, can't wait to see him :)

Congratulations, Kathy and Lucky - I will be in contact with you shortly and thank you everyone for stopping by! Have a great weekend, everyone! I'll see you back Sunday when the new Riley sneak peeks start - Can't wait!! xoxo

11.15.2011

** Blog Candy now Closed **Winner will be announced shortly in my Riley post! :)

Good morning! It's the 15th of the month and that means the Dueling Darlings duel it out with mystery card kits .... and what fun!! It was my turn to host for the Divas and Jeanette was hostess for the Dazzlers! That, in itself, should have had all the Darlings running for cover - ROFL! And did we ever have a grand 'ol time this month planning a doozy of a theme - What not to Wear (based on the hit tv show) with a twist - what not to wear to the Holiday Party! We put together a cah-razy mishmash of holiday papers tossed in with some argyle, stripes, pinks and purples ... all the wild outfits that you see them start the show with before they dress 'em up! Lastly, our CHALLENGE part this month was to show off an old picture of ourselves wearing one of those crazy outfits ~ I wore day-glow, neon clothes ala Madonna style in high school, so atrocious I can't believe that we walked around looking like humor highlighters! But it was style - big hair, glam rock, flashy clothes, big shoulder pads ......... Hi-de-ous! I didn't get a chance to head over to my mom's to scoop up an old photo album but I did sneak this one out of my husband's old photo album from when we met - IN HIGH SCHOOL, lol. We've been together for like 100 years :) We were collecting those Flintstones glasses from P.Hut and stopped in to find one ~ and he snapped a picture ... Oh my, that was a lifetime ago :) But as you can see from my cropped half shirt (gasp) I still had those bright colors going on ;) I also had just cut my hair - it was always long and teased and HUGE!! Oh what a decade ........ LOL!!

I went around and around with what image I wanted to use, and finally remember this sweet little In Style stamp called Lilah. I bought a few of these for gifts and kept one intended to make cards for my daughters - and never did *smile!* But she's ready to rock around the Christmas tree now, paired up with papers from MME, DCWV and CI - buttons, bow, twine and more. I added a sentiment inside and the paper that was one of the requirements - use one of the non holiday papers in some fashion. Rambling ...... NOT happy at all with my card, but it was due so now it's done, rofl :)

Be sure to check out what the other Divas 'n Dazzlers have going on with this What Not To Wear kit!! I'm so proud of them for taking on this challenge - I know for some of them it was not easy and am so proud of them for stepping up to a difficult challenge and hope it was a fun and creative process thinking outside the box! You can see the diva's blog creations:

Barb * Carol * Judy * Jamie * Joan * Kelly (me!) * LauraJean * Tami

and the Dazzlers can be viewed when you go to the Team Leader, Jeanette's blog! WOOHOO! Sit back and enjoy the show!!!! :)

11.12.2011

Afternoon! I hope you are enjoying the splendors of the long weekend - we are enjoying the gorgeous temps outside and combining it with catching up on home projects and running around doing early holiday shopping :) I was able to squeeze in a little card for a friend a day or so ago - she's my prayer partner, bible study fellowshipper and partner-in-crime for my Starbucks addiction! She loves everything zoo animals and I found this sweet little High Hopes giraffe when organizing my crafting Cabana and wanted to ink him up! I found the matching sentiment and wanted to try to combine them both to the front but not make it look too cluttered ...... and NOT add a flower, ROFL!

I ordered some holiday paper the other day and realized I added this gorgeous My Mind's Eye paper twice - I don't need two of them, so I thought I'd add it as a little mini blog candy giveaway :) I've also added some of my favorite BUTTONS!!!! and some red flowers that you might be able to use for the holiday time ;) I'll pick a winner at random one day next week (tba!) and leave this up for you to leave a your name in the comment section :) That's it - all ya have to do - no need to post or reblog :)

11.09.2011

Oh my goodness ... Anyone remember me?! :) I've been soooo neglectful of my blog/ing ... I just can't seem to catch up in the craftroom and am sooo mojo-less. I've tried revisiting my old cards, trying sketches, looking at color combos ... nada! I think my brain just has too many irons in the fire to focus on cards - which is not good with the holidays right around the corner and 2 swaps due soon on SCS!

I did get a few minutes today to color at the table while waiting for the towels to wash and the floor to dry (mopped myself into a corner, lol) so I decided no matter what, I'd force it onto a card and be one more card into the holiday ;) I love this reindeer image from PDS called Socket - isn't he sweet! And guess what I did! I chopped this by accident AFTER I had it colored up! Oh. My. Word. See - my head wasn't into this card making, lol! I had to take a picture to show you my blunder. I was NOT planning on putting one more flower on one more card. Buttons? Yes, absolutely!! But not a flower, hee hee! The sentiment is from one of my SU stamp sets.

11.04.2011

Happy Friday! I pray you had a good week and off to a wonderful start to the weekend :) I'm still not back into crafting mode yet as we've been meeting a lot of dr's for dd16 and spending hours upon hours in dr's - eek!

Meanwhile, December becomes a CAH-RAZY month for us -- with 3 daughters with 3 December birthdays (no, we did not plan that, rofl), it's busy season! I got a jump start on one birthday card already - my baby girl LOVES her some pink and unlike her mother, loves bling and glitz and glittery stuff :) Using this digi from Pixie Dust Studio, I crafted her an early bday card using her favorite color of pink (again, unlike her mother, lol!) I love little girls!!! She's not so little anymore, but she's been so much fun as she's grown up - so much a little girl, all cutesy and girly and sassy to boot ;) This digi is perfect for dd's birthday card because it's from the Pixie of the Month collection - December Pixie!

And, sadly, it was time for me to say goodbye to the PDS team as my term ended - I have loved every second of being on the DT and working with the uber talented and wonderfully sweet Kathy - owner and illustrator of PDS :) I'm so thankful for the time I had on the PDS DT team! But do keep your eye out on the challenge blog and beyond - so much wonderful stuff ahead! I would have loved to stay on but chose to take a step back from a new DT term to focus on my family and get my dd16 comfortable and confident again :)

Blessings to you this wonderful weekend - I hear we are having temps of 50's tomorrow - wishful thinking on my part, but I certainly hope we do - how glorious that would be!

11.01.2011

Happy November! I truly love this season - the change in temps, the slight crisp feel in the air and the promise of all the wonderful things coming up in the next few holidays! I'm so far behind in my blogging .... and crafting :x Life has just jumped up 100% into busy mode ;) I hope you had a marvelous Halloween! We enjoyed the rain stopping just in time to take the kids out in the neighborhood and quite a haul they brought home - 3/4 of it to be donated. And our church Harvest Festival was so much fun - my littlest daughter won the "Guess the Pumpkin Weight" and brought home a 32.4 pounder! Too fun!

Speaking of Harvest, it's time for another bi-weekly challenge at Riley and Company! This challenge is old is new again -- use any Riley stamp that is at least a year old. I chose to use Wheat Riley since he fit the season at hand, not to mention he is as cute as can be with his overalls and bit of wheat he's chewing on ;) I paired him with this MME paper since I had it handy from another recent card and made it work - added some flowers from a recent Tuesday Morning haul and of course, had to do my card on the inside in the same theme .... I had to ROFL when I saw my finished card .... I started singing "Oh Susannah", lol! :)-

You can link up your cards on the Riley Challenge blog and also see all the fabby creations from the DT ..... take a peek here! Once you have created your card/project come back here and place a comment with a link to your card/project to this post so that we can see what you created. If you upload your card/project to SCS don't forget to include the keyword RILEY2211.